"Your Class is Not Your Character": Is this a real problem?

[The Crimson Binome]

That paladins have three spell slots at fourth level is crunch. That those paladin spells are granted by a god is fluff.
That paladins gain the Heavy Armour proficiency is crunch. That paladins are heavily armoured knights is fluff.
The tenets of the Devotion paladin are crunch. That paladins stand for goodness and justice is fluff.

Changing the crunch is house rules. Changing the fluff is not house rules, or home brew, or deviating from the rules. Just re-fluffing.

That paladins have three spell slots at fourth level, is a reflection of the true capacity for someone with this specific training and experience, to cast spells. It is both fluff and crunch. It is the same sentence written in two different languages.

That paladins learn to wear heavy armor, which is represented by heavy armor proficiency, is both fluff and crunch.

That a paladin will follow a specified code of conduct is both fluff and crunch.

Changing the connection between a given piece of fluff, and its corresponding crunch, requires a house rule. You're changing how the game works. (Not that there's anything wrong with that, but it's a matter for the DM to handle.)

Inventing your own crunch, to represent fluff that is otherwise not present in the book, is just home-brewing. You're adding stuff to the game. (Not that there's anything wrong with that, either, but it's also a matter for the DM to handle.)

 

[prabe]

So, I allow the Order Domain in my setting/campaigns, but I call it the Command Domain, because I think that better reflects what it does. I probably changed the names of the Domain abilities here and there to reflect the domain name I'm using. How am I changing how the domain works in the game by changing those names? Allowing the domain is a house rule; that's not in question here.

 

[Stoutstien]

So, I allow the Order Domain in my setting/campaigns, but I call it the Command Domain, because I think that better reflects what it does. I probably changed the names of the Domain abilities here and there to reflect the domain name I'm using. How am I changing how the domain works in the game by changing those names? Allowing the domain is a house rule; that's not in question here.

Why is allowing an official printed player subclass option a house rule?

 

[CleverNickName]

Why is allowing an official printed player subclass option a house rule?

Some DMs (like me) don't allow everything that gets printed to be automatically added to their campaigns. All sorts of stuff gets published, but not all of it will fit the tone, setting, or style of the game I'm running.

 

[Stoutstien]

Some DMs (like me) don't allow everything that gets printed to be automatically added to their campaigns. All sorts of stuff gets published, but not all of it will fit the tone, setting, or style of the game I'm running.

Which is perfectly fine but it not a houserule. DM providing parameters for players to choose from for an individual campaign is part of the rules.

if I say that I don't like dragonborn so I take it out of my game. Then when I put them back in I called it a houserule. Dragonborn- might not be the best example.

Pretty much all book past the PHB are optional as a rule.

 

[CleverNickName]

Which is perfectly fine but it not a houserule. DM providing parameters for players to choose from for an individual campaign is part of the rules.

if I say that I don't like dragonborn so I take it out of my game. Then when I put them back in I called it a houserule. Dragonborn- might not be the best example.

Pretty much all book past the PHB are optional as a rule.

I think I misunderstood your earlier post, sorry about that. I thought you were saying something along the lines of "This subclass was published, and therefore it should automatically be allowed." But that's not what you were getting at.

I'm gonna go clean my glasses.

 

[Stoutstien]

I think I misunderstood your earlier post, sorry about that. I thought you were saying something along the lines of "This subclass was published, and therefore it should automatically be allowed." But that's not what you were getting at.

I'm gonna go clean my glasses.

Oh yes, i could see that. Exact opposite intention. Full thought half post

 

[Azzy]

Re-fluffing died with 4E.

Nope, it's alive and well in 5e, in fact, Eberron: Rising From the Last War goes out of its way in multiple places to draw attention to it.

 

[Panda-s1]

Nope, it's alive and well in 5e, in fact, Eberron: Rising From the Last War goes out of its way in multiple places to draw attention to it.

shh don't bring up other official settings, they're avoiding them deliberately lol

 

[Tallifer]

I do not mind a player trying to roleplay a class against type, as long as they recognize that their character is acting against others' expectations: NPCs will react in disgust to an immoral paladin, with distrust or hatred towards a good necromancer, with scorn towards a rogue who cannot sneak or disarm traps. In fact as a dungeon master I can tolerate and chuckle at it more; as a player nothing frustrates me more than a cleric who cannot heal and who loots every shrine or tomb he stumbles across.